Lost

 Istanbul, Turkey

 Loud honks of cars were ripping the polluted air around the motorway. Seoeun sighed as she was sitting in the cab for nearly two hours now. Beside her, Minseok was playing a game on his phone and let out a frustrated groan from time to time. They were stuck in a traffic jam on their way to their hotel located in the heart of Istanbul. Everything they had seen from the city were the endless fields around it, the long highways and the angry drivers cursing in an incomprehensible language.

 Despite her desperate appearance, inwardly Seoeun’s thoughts were running wild as she was trying to come up with a plan how to compensate the lost time. They were already an hour and a half late for their check-in in the hotel and this made her feel extremely fidgety.

 “How about we first go out for a walk and then go sightseeing, I heard Turkey has plenty of history to explore.” Minseok tore his eyes from his phone and looked at Seoeun with a questioning look.

 “Yeah, I really want to visit the Grand Bazaar, I read about it in the Internet.” The girl nodded and stared through her window to greet the enormous city ahead of them.

 As soon as the pair set foot on the street in front of their hotel they felt the absolutely different atmosphere of the city. At first sight Istanbul was incredibly versatile. All kinds of people were roaming the paved streets. Unlike the other cities, Istanbul was anything but boring. All kinds of cultures could be met in the span of ten minutes. The city had this urban but cozy and oriental feel to it. Seoeun could not exactly put her finger on it, but she definitely liked these differences from Seoul.

 “I want to buy this scarf!” Seoeun almost shrieked in Minseok’s ear as they were walking under the roofs of the Grand Bazaar. It was a giant market with all kinds of goods: from clothes, jewelry to food and all kinds of spices. The heavy smell of spices and instant tea filled their nostrils to the point that they didn’t feel anything else with their noses. Colourful scarves hung from the top to the bottom of a small stall. A short man with dark skin and black bushy moustache greeted them in Turkish, though they obviously could not understand him.

 When he saw their lost expressions he switched to almost fluent English.

 “Where are you from, my friends?” he asked them, flashing his crooked smile of an experienced merchant.

 “South Korea.” Seoeun answered with a little smile “I like this scarf, how much does it cost?” She pointed to a white scarf with beautiful red and pink peonies.

 “Forty pounds.” He smiled and took the shawl and wrapped it around her neck.

 She was immediately taken aback by this action, for she had never been treated like this by a salesperson.

 “Leave it to me.” Minseok whispered in Korean and continued in English, “Forty is too much, I can’t give more than twenty for this.” He successfully pretended to be uninterested.

 “No, no, twenty-eight, no less!” The short man bargained but the boy didn’t give up so easily.

 “Twenty-five and the pretty lady gets a second scarf.” The boy crossed his arms because he knew he had won judging by the man’s face. He then grinned widely under his moustache and shuffled around, fishing another scarf, even prettier than the former.

 “How did you do that?” Seoeun finally asked with wide eyes, still trying to process the scene.

 “My father often went in business trips to India and he taught me how to bargain. In these countries it is an honour for the seller to bargain for his goods.”

 The girl nodded in understanding and took off her scarves to observe them closely. The one she had chosen was made of fine silk and was softly gliding against her palms. The other one, however, was made of thick black satin and had red patterns on it. It was so unlike Seoeun to wear something like this but she liked it in a weird way. It was mysterious and beautiful just like an oriental woman, wrapped in a scarf like this.

 “I’ve never tried the famous Turkish delight, let’s buy some.” Seoeun mumbled as she was still observing her new accessories. She didn’t get an answer so she lifted her head only to find the space beside her empty.

 “Minseok?” her eyes started darting from one figure to the other, panic already creeping under her skin. “It’s not funny.” She mumbled as the realization downed upon her.

 Seoeun was lost all alone in an enormous market, where every corner strangely resembled the previous. The girl walked back and forth the alley they were standing on just a few minutes ago but Minseok was nowhere to be found among the moving crowd. She called his name multiple times but the only answer was the constant buzzing of muffled conversations resonating in the curved ceiling. Her eyes filled with tears as she searched and searched for him. Her feet ran to different directions making her feel even more confused than she had been a minute ago.

 A tear slid down her cheek and dropped on her chiffon shirt. Then another one. The second before she realized it, she had curled on a ball, her back resting on the cold wall of one of the corridors. Her arms were crossed on her knees as she sobbed uncontrollably. Nobody seemed to mind her though; it was as if everyone was living in their own universe.

 It wasn’t supposed to happen. Seoeun hadn’t ever planned getting lost in any of the cities they visited because she simply thought of herself as a cautious and responsible person. She had never been so wrong, though. All her life crumbled upon the thought of never being found. Now the Grand Bazaar didn’t seem so colourful, it was hideous in her eyes. All the vibrancy screamed in her blurred eyesight, all the noises coming from everywhere numbed her senses and they sounded like a constant hum in the background. Her heart was racing against her ribcage but everything else moved in slow motion. There was even a grey cat peacefully sleeping on the counter of the opposite stall. Seoeun focused on the animal’s steady breathing as she was desperately trying to find out the way out in her brain.

 Somewhere between the sobs and tears, a gentle hand had grabbed her by the arm and forced her to stand straight. It was none other than Minseok, sweat glistening on his temples and his breath coming out in short and ragged heaves.

 Seoeun didn’t have to say anything, she just let a final sob slip from her lips and threw her arms around Minseok’s neck and hugged him tightly, inhaling his fresh scent. His palms traced warm patterns on her back in a comforting way, his lips whispering soothing words in her ear. Immediately, the feelings of dread and despair vanished and were replaced by relief and gratitude.

 Again, the old notebook was lying in the girl’s lap. Her hands rested on both of its sides, tracing the worn out edges. After the incident in the Grand Bazaar, Seoeun had asked Minseok to accompany her to a photo studio to print out some pictures. As always, he never asked why she printed them or where she stored them; he never saw these pictures after Seoeun took them with her.

 The girl took a picture of her family and her on their last vacation to Gangneung. She carefully stuck it to a blank page and wrote with a black pen below it:

 Dear dreamer,

This is the last picture of me and my family together on a vacation. Sad, isn’t it? I try to enjoy it since it is my last one but I just can’t force myself to, knowing that I would never experience it again. At least I have something to look forward to – my world trip with Min. We are heading first to China and our last stop is Japan, I intend to confess to him there. Only the thought scares me and makes me nervous, I don’t think I would survive after I tell him. Wish me luck!

 I grant you this fragment, keep it safe, dreamer.

 A frown appeared on her forehead. She hadn’t written in this for a while. Seoeun had stored the thought of it at the back of her mind, neglecting it. She felt quite bad for not writing so long but smiled nevertheless. It was her dream, after all.

Tokyo, Japan

 At the height of summer everything was wildly blooming with colours and enjoying the warm rays of the sun. The trees had long thrown their pink and white dresses and were now wearing luscious green gowns. People, on the other hand, had thrown the most of their clothing and were walking barely dressed in shorts and cotton vests.

 “I wish we had come in spring to see the cherry trees blooming.” Seoeun sighed dreamily as they were waiting in the lobby of their hotel to check in. She was looking out the window of the small hotel built and decorated in a Japanese ancient style. Outside was a spacious garden with flowers and short bonsai trees.

 “Yeah, me too. I’d love to see them flowing in the sky like a flock of tiny pink butterflies.” Minseok answered, looking in the same direction. He rarely spoke of his wishes but when he did, he made sure they sound like a fairytale.

 “Even stripped from their beauty they are still beautiful.”

 Minseok nodded in agreement as he stood up to check them in. Each went to their room to get ready. They planned to go out and grab a bite of sushi and then head to the Sumida Park where cherry trees grew along the paths and adored the park as one of the most visited places for the beauty of the cherry trees.

 After the short snack on raw fish stuffed in rice, as Seoeun called it, the couple headed to the park. With her short pin dress and long chocolate brown hair, Seoeun looked like a cherry blossom petal swaying in the chilly night breeze. Beauty among the beauty, she looked as if she was glowing from the inside and the outside, too.

 They were walking on the alley by the lake and Seoeun was gazing in the deep calm waters.   She had no idea how to tell him what she felt. It was like explaining the taste of water – her feelings to him were vital but also a routine to her life, so indescribable. She didn’t feel ready to pour all her heart and then present it in front of him but who would be anyway? There wouldn’t be a better occasion to tell him that and she wouldn’t waste it this time.

 “I’ve been thinking about…” Seoeun started after a while but could not finish her sentence. Her whole life was in front of her like an open book. Like she was a spectator looking at a movie about her own life. And her death, caused by the edge of a concrete tile, that was sticking out from the surface of the floor. Her miserable life, half of it consumed by love kept a secret, which ended in the deep waters of a lake.

Author's Note

 Long time no see, people! I'll skip the part where I say how sorry I am and how busy I was because of school and yada yada yada... Let's talk about the chapter! Wow, there's quite a lot happening here. She got lost and then...died? Or did she? I'll let you decide until I come down to writing the next chappie, I think you know what will happen. Or do you? I'm so confusing today, I'm driving myself insane lol We're nearing the end of this arc and just to let you know,  some is about to blow once it's over.

 If you're not too lazy, leave a comment and subscribe, until next time, I still love you!